14 DAY TRIAL // Hacktivists opposing Canada’s anti-terrorism act that impacts the integrity of citizen’s security and privacy have breached the computer systems of the Police Association of Ontario (PAO) and stole sensitive information about its members.
This week, the data was posted online on a public paste site and it is still available at the moment of writing. It contains details from three databases, impacting hundreds of individuals.
Anonymous hackers react to C-51 Bill
A hacker operating under the Twitter handle “ro0ted” linked to the dump on Wednesday, informing that the group they’re part of had already deployed four protest operations.
Anonymous hackers recently took down government websites like Canada.ca or the site for the Department of Finance and Treasury Board.
The message also contains the hashtags “OpC51” referring to the revised anti-terrorism bill and “Anonymous,” indicating that a larger hacktivist group is part of the protest, which now seems to have taken a blackmail turn.
Admin and member data exposed
The online data dump has details about four administrators, including email addresses, the name of one of them, login IP addresses, and hashed passwords.
Information about members of the association comprises first and last names, email addresses, the city they are located in, and plain text passwords. The details are available in an active list of members, as well as in a backup file that contains a slightly larger number of entries. Both of them, however, are at least 400 lines large.
Hacktivists are unlikely to resign and quit the attacks against the Canadian government, even if provisions of the C-51 Bill are currently in force. Protests are still taking place and there is general opposition against it and, at least in theory, it could be amended by the end of 2015, as a new government may be formed as a result of elections this fall.